New studies: lynx in Switzerland remains under threat despite comeback

Traffic accidents, a barely recorded level of poaching and congenital heart defects resulting from genetic impoverishment continue to take their toll on Europe's largest wild cat.

On 10 June 2026, on the occasion of the international day of action, WWF Switzerland presented two recent studies that paint a sobering picture. Fifty years after its reintroduction, the lynx is regarded as a rare success story of Swiss species conservation. Yet the data show: humans remain by far the greatest danger to the shy predator.

Traffic kills most often, poaching remains in the dark

An analysis of mortality and diseases in free-ranging lynx, published in the journal PLOS ONE, concludes that collisions on roads and railways remain the number one cause of death. In addition, the study also documents illegal killings. The researchers' assessment is crucial here: the actual extent of poaching is likely to be significantly underestimated owing to a high number of unreported cases.

This assessment matches what Wild beim Wild has been documenting for years. A study by the University of Bern showed as early as 2020 that illegal kills had massively held back lynx populations in Valais over the years. Just how structural the problem is can be seen in the Dossier on poaching and hunting crime in Switzerland: national statistics are lacking, proceedings are dropped, and in most cases perpetrators from hobby hunting circles go unpunished. As recently as October 2025, in the canton of Fribourg a poached mother lynx was found dead, her orphaned young had little chance of survival. The fact that Switzerland penalises illegal lynx killings strikingly leniently by international comparison is shown in the article Lynx beaten to death in Alsace: France punishes harshly, Switzerland almost says nothing.

Congenital heart defects as a result of genetic impoverishment

The second study, published in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases, documents subaortic stenosis in four free-living lynx: a congenital narrowing in the heart that makes pumping blood more difficult. This malformation is normally extremely rare in wild cats. The researchers see a possible connection with the low genetic diversity of the Swiss populations, all of which trace back to a few animals released in the 1970s.

With this, genetic impoverishment turns from an abstract technical term into a concrete health risk: inbreeding manifests directly in diseased hearts. The central role the lynx plays for intact forests and stable wildlife populations is explained in the background article on the importance of the lynx for the preservation of biodiversity.

Around 360 lynx: Switzerland bears a special responsibility

According to the WWF, around 360 lynx live in the cross-border Alpine and Jura region, most of them in Switzerland. «Switzerland connects the lynx populations in the Alps and the Jura. From this arises a special responsibility to effectively link these habitats,» WWF lynx expert Gabor von Bethlenfalvy is quoted as saying in the statement. The lynx influences the wildlife population and thereby strengthens the stability of the forests.

As solutions, the WWF names connected habitats, targeted releases for genetic refreshment, international cooperation and consistent scientific monitoring.

Protection on paper is not enough

The lynx is strictly protected under the Federal Act on Hunting and the Protection of Wild Mammals and Birds (JSG, SR 922.0). The new studies show, however, that this protected status is worth little as long as poaching systematically stays under the radar and violations are rarely prosecuted consistently. Anyone who wants to keep the lynx in Switzerland in the long term must not only build wildlife corridors but also end the structural impunity surrounding illegal kills.